Tag: Dave Higgs

I was looking through some pub rock bands lately and found this band. It’s such an interesting musical era in the early to mid-seventies with pub rock. I love the stripped-down feel of that music. They almost go back to a ’50s sound. Barrie Masters was their energetic lead singer. He was skinny and hyper with great stage presence. I love the live performances I’ve seen from them. He was all over the place. 

This band was between Pub Rock and Punk with a little Power Pop thrown in. They seemed too musical for punk but too edgy for radio, but this one hit the charts. Later on, bands like The Jam, The Undertones, and even early Blondie were picking up the same feel. Do Anything You Wanna Do peaked at #9 in the UK in 1977.

On how they got their name and why they were not Barrie and the Hot Rods, lead singer Barrie Masters said: “Because Barrie and the… would’ve sounded STUPID! The only reason it was Eddie and the Hot Rods… We loved the name when Dave came up with Hot Rods! And then we wanted Something and the Hot Rods. Do you remember those old Cruisin’ albums? The guy in those cars was always called Eddie. That’s how it came about — Eddie and the Hot Rods, and it stuck.” 

They formed in 1975 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. They came up in the pub rock scene that rebelled against prog and glam. Bands like Dr. Feelgood, The Count Bishops, and Kilburn and the High Roads were doing away with glitter and mystique, trading them in for raw stripped-down R&B. Between 1976 and ‘79, the band (Barrie Masters, Dave Higgs, Paul Gray and Steve Nichol, later to be joined by Graeme Douglas) released three great albums and toured extensively in the UK, Europe, and America.

By 1980, the constant touring took its toll. Paul Gray and Graeme Douglas left the band and joined The Damned. They released another album after that, but a lack of promotion caused poor sales, and they broke up. 

Masters would reform the band multiple times in the decades that followed, keeping the Hot Rods on the pub and festival circuit. Barrie Masters passed away in 2019. 

Do Anything You Wanna Do

Gonna break out of the city
Leave the people here behind
Searching for adventure
It’s the type of life to find
Tired of doing day jobs
With no thanks for what I do
I’m sure I must be someone
Now I’m gonna find out who

Why don’t you ask them what they expect from you?
Why don’t you tell them what you are gonna do?
You’ll get so lonely, maybe it’s better that way
It ain’t you only, you got something to say
Do anything you wanna do
Do anything you wanna do

Don’t need no politicians to tell me things I shouldn’t be
Neither no opticians to tell me what I oughta see
No one tells you nothing even when you know they know
But they tell you what you should do
They don’t like to see you grow

Why don’t you ask them what they expect from you?
Why don’t you tell them what you are gonna do?
You’ll get so lonely, maybe it’s better that way
It ain’t you only, you got something to say
Do anything you wanna do
Do anything you wanna do

Gonna break out of the city
Leave the people here behind
Searching for adventure
It’s the type of life to find
Tired of doing day jobs
With no thanks for what I do
I’m sure I must be someone
Now I’m gonna find out who

Why don’t you ask them what they expect from you?
Why don’t you tell them what you’re gonna do?
You’ll get so lonely, maybe it’s better that way
It’ain’t you only, you got something to say
Do anything you wanna do
Do anything you wanna do

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